Visit Aquileana’s dog mythology post for my epic poem about a fairy tale dog. Woo-hoo and thanks, Aquileana, for publishing my poem, Laelaps, Hound of Magic! Collaborating is a fun way to widen your blogging horizons. I often feel inspired by Aquileana’s well-researched posts, and this time I had time to read and let a poem emerge before she even published. Such fun! Thanks again, Aquileana!

The dog is the first domesticated animal, and is symbolically associated with loyalty and vigilance, often acting as guardian and protector. Dogs are portrayed as guides and companions, hence the notion of “man’s best friend.”

Dogs almost always appear in a positive light. Native American legends generally portray the dog as the symbol of friendship and loyalty. The Joshua Athapascans believe that dogs were the first beings made by their creator-figure, Xowala’ci. The Jicarilla Apache, on the other hand, tell the story of God Black Hactcin, who first created a dog and then made man as a companion for the dog.

In Irish Mythology, dogs were the traditional guardian animals of roads and crossways…

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I wrote a comment on Aquileana for you and he on your collaboration, Brenda.
The story of the dog, Laelaps, shared from Zeus to the female goddess, made me smile until the wily fox kept outwitting poor dog. The children growing old, this part made it touching. How often does time fly too quickly?!
The bleeding feet made the chase serious indeed! Tears of remembrance turning both into marble statues, permanently caught in the chase, throwing them into canis minor and canis major really brought the story “full circle.” 🌌🌌 Hopefully, Laelaps knew his master loved him. 💕

I’m glad you liked the story, Robin. I tried to think of details to bring Laelaps alive. Since you are worried for his feelings, I must have managed it a bit. Thanks! I’ll stop by Aquileana’s site soon and read the comment. She is certainly popular, isn’t she?

An excellent teamwork post! I adore it. I had to go back a second time for a second read of both the article and the poem before I could comment.
Besides that I just plain enjoyed reading the poem, it helped me to understand the myth, further.
Congratulations to both of you a well deserved for such hard work on a wonderful post! ⭐ ❤ ⭐

Thanks, Resa! I had a good time with the poem. I wanted the focus to be the dog, so I didn’t say much about the last two owners, but there’s a fascinating story there that I just hint at with the “cross-dressing” and “errant husband” comments. There was also a spear that didn’t miss and a suggestion that Artemis gifted the dog to the cross-dresser, so that’s where the references to “faster than a spear” and “faster than an arrow” come in. It’d be fun to tell a whole book from the point of view of the dog. 🙂 These collaborations help keep the blogging more fresh than always writing about flowers. 🙂 Thanks for reading and stopping by!

Hi Brenda!, ⭐ You are such a great poet ((I wish I could write poetry as you do!)) 😉 I was delighted to have you on my blog and your poem “Laelaps, Hound of Magic” is just excellent ! Thank you so much for accepting! xx